In modern warehouses and the now familiar warehouse style shopping centers, such as do-it-yourself home improvement stores, a variety of open rack material storage systems are used to store such items as lumber, steel, and a variety of palletized goods. In a typical setting, a warehouse may have a network of open rack storage units which often includes rows of storage rack arms which extend outwardly from upright support structures in a cantilever configuration. Typically a number of rows are provided which allow material to be stored vertically to maximize use of warehouse space. Such storage rack units are typically disposed in spaced apart relation to provide aisles there between through which personnel may travel with material handling devices, such as forklifts, and through which customers may travel for viewing and selecting goods.
An operator typically will load material across two or more adjacent storage rack arms by hand or by using a variety of material handling storage devices, such as a forklift. In order to maximize the capacity of a given row of storage rack arms, the operator typically attempts to load a sufficient amount of material onto a row of storage rack arms to fill the space between that row of storage rack arms and the next row of storage rack arms immediately above the row of storage rack arms being loaded.
Loading material onto such storage rack arms requires skill by the operator to avoid striking the outer edges of the outwardly extending storage rack arms disposed in the row of storage rack arm:; immediately above the row of storage rack arms onto which material is being loaded. Likewise, care must be taken to avoid striking storage rack arms when unloading material. Striking the storage rack arms may not only damage the storage rack arms themselves, but may damage the material being loaded or the material handling device, or may cause personal injury to the operator.
Care also must be exercised to avoid personal injury caused by collision by personnel and customers with the outer edges of the outwardly-extending storage rack arms during loading and unloading operations and during shopping activities by customers. Moreover, with the advent of warehouse shopping centers, the exposed outer edges of the storage rack arms diminish the aesthetic appearance of the goods being displayed thereon.
It is known in the art to provide a protector assembly for mounting beneath the outwardly extending storage rack arms and which extends forwardly of the outer edges of the storage rack arms for preventing injury to personnel and equipment resulting from striking the ends of the outwardly extending storage rack arms. However, such systems reduce storage capacity, significantly increase the weight and cost of the storage rack unit and are unsightly to customers. Also, such systems do not reduce the level of precision required by operators in placing a load of material immediately beneath such protector assemblies.